These pictures may look like an attractive woman in her 20s and her grandmother.

But they are said to be the same person – apparently taken just days apart.

The young Vietnamese woman at the centre of the improbable medical case, Nguyen Thi Phuong, claims the transformation may have come about because of an extreme allergy to seafood.

Nguyen, 26, says she developed this puffy face and sagging skin in 2008 but was too poor to seek treatment. Earlier this month, doctors said they would examine her free of charge.

Nguyen’s husband, carpenter Thanh Tuyen, insists the story is true and his love has not faded for his once-beautiful wife.

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Rapid ageing: A mystery condition has apparently caused Nguyen Thi Phuong’s face to sag and wrinkle over a matter of day. She is pictured aged 21 on the left and 26 on the right

She has always worn wear a mask in public to hide her appearance from prying eyes, but she has now sought help from doctors to see if they can reverse the ‘ageing’ effect.

Displaying photos of a beautiful 21-year-old woman on her wedding day in 2006, Mrs Nguyen said: ‘Five years ago, I was rather pretty and not so ugly like this, right?’

Mrs Nguyen believes her condition was caused by a life-long allergy to seafood.

She said she had suffered a particularly bad reaction in 2008.

‘I was really itchy all over my body. I had to scratch even while sleeping.’

Phuong said she took some medicine bought at a local pharmacy instead of going to the hospital because her and her husband Tuyen, now 33, were too poor to afford it.

She said: ‘After one month of taking the drugs, I became less itchy but hives remained on my skin.Then I switched to traditional medicineand all the hives disappeared, together with my itching. however, my skin began to sag and fold.’

Mrs Nguyen then took another kind of traditional medicine to treat her rapid-aging skin problem – but to no avail.

Doctors say it may have been the long-term use of traditional medicines that caused the condition as they are often spiked with corticoids. These steroids speed up the effects of the unregulated remedies but could also have triggered the rare skin disease mastocytosis, where the body produces too many mast cells.

The couple do not remember what the medicine was or which pharmacy they got it from.

Our love hasn’t faded: Tuven (pictured) said he still loved his wife but they hadn’t had children as their lives were too difficult

Mrs Nguyen said: ‘We considered that it was our destiny and I quit treatment in 2009. Now I always wear a face mask whenever I go out.

‘The skin on my face, chest and belly have folds like an old woman who has given birth several times although Ihave never had a child.